<p>In response to the <a href="http://www.prachatai3.info/english/node/1895">AHRC's open letter</a> to Abhisit Vejjajiva on 18 June regarding the detention and treatment of people arrested under the Emergency Decree, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has posted its <a href="http://www.mfa.go.th/web/35.php?id=24670">reply</a> on its website.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.prachatai3.info/english/node/1854">Wasan Sang-rasmi</a>, or Keng, a rescue volunteer who witnessed the killings at Pathumwanaram Temple on 19 May, has been issued a summons by the CRES, but he has decided not to meet the authorities.</p>
By Reporters Without Borders |
<p>Reporters Without Borders welcomes the pardon that King Bhumibol Adulyadej issued on 28 June to Suvicha Thakhor, who was serving a 10-year jail sentence on a lèse majesté charge for allegedly using software to modify photos of the royal family before posting them online.</p>
<p>Provincial police commanders told a Senate Committee that the government had decided to disperse the red shirts on 19 May without telling them, so they were not quick enough to prevent the burning of provincial halls. Local people are unhappy with the government’s accusation that the red shirts are trying to overthrow the monarchy, they said.</p>
<p>A businessman arrested in late April for what he wrote on his Facebook has been denied bail, and his detention has been extended five times since his arrest.</p>
<p>The man, 37, whose name is withheld at the request of a family member, was arrested by the Department of Special Investigation on 29 April. He was accused of violating the lèse majesté law (Section 112 of the Criminal Code) and the 2007 Computer Crimes Act.</p>
<p>Social activist Sombat Boon-ngamanong was arrested by police when he and his friends were conducting an activity to commemorate the deaths of red shirts at the Ratchaprasong intersection. Over a hundred people have signed an open letter demanding his immediate release.</p>
<p>About 100 NGO workers, activists, students and academics have signed an open letter addressed to their peers in civil society, rejecting the Reform Thailand plan being pushed by Prawase Wasi and Anand Panyarachun, and criticizing it as illegitimate and untrustworthy.</p>
<p>According to the letter, the signatories are part of the civil society movement, including current and former NGO workers, students, academics and social activists who are seriously concerned with their fellows’ response to the call to the Reform Thailand.</p>
<p>A group of students at Chiang Mai University staged a protest inside the campus to call for the lifting of the Emergency Decree. Photos of them gagging themselves with tape and dispalying protest signs have been forwarded through activists’ emails and social networking websites.</p>
<p>The daughter of a red shirt killed at Ratchaprarop on 15 May has finally found the body of her father. She has met independent photographer Nick Nostitz to hear about her father’s fatal moment. Nostitz took pictures of the man injured with gunshot wounds on that day while they were seeking shelter and has been trying to locate him ever since.</p>
<p>Reform Thailand has recently become a buzzword among a certain part of the so-called ‘people’s sector’ or civil society. Dr Prawase Wasi is an influential social critic, commanding much respect from many activists and bureaucrats. He has had an important role in the setting up of several development agencies, some of which are major domestic funders for Thai NGOs.</p>
<p>In a cabinet meeting on 15 June, ICT Minister Chuti Krairoek reported about websites containing lèse majesté contents. He said that Jakrapob Penkair and Giles Ungpakorn are still active in conveying information through websites in Europe. Meanwhile, the Ministry of ICT found a group of 200 people that constantly posts LM messages online, which is against the law.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has urged ICT Minister Chuti to negotiate with the people related to the websites according to the National Reconcilation Roadmap.</p>
<p>Sulaiman Naesa, who died under mysterious circumstances in Ingkayuttaborihan military camp in Pattani on 29 May, was the second suspect after Imam Yapha Khaseng to have died in military custody. The case has added fuel to criticisms of the justice process under the special laws in the southern border provinces.</p>